Collective Consciousness🔗

15.17 Besides these two, there is the supreme Puruṣa, the Lord Himself, who pervades and sustains these three worlds.

15.18 As I am transcendental, beyond both the perishable and the imperishable, and the best, I am declared both in the world and in the Vedas as that supreme person, Puruṣottama.

15.19 Whoever knows Me as the supreme, without a doubt, is to be understood as the knower of everything, and he worships Me with all his being, O son of Bharata.

15.20 This is the most profound teaching taught by Me, O Sinless One, and whoever knows this will become wise and his actions will bear fruit.

Krishna says that beyond these two aspects of puruṣa, the perishable body-mind energy and the imperishable spirit energy, there lies another level of energy that is the supreme puruṣa. He goes on to say that He is that supreme puruṣa, Puruṣottama.

Puruṣa is the energy that pervades us. Puruṣottama is the energy that pervades the entire universe. Puruṣottama in that sense is no different from Parāśakti, the cosmic energy. It is only a play of words to separate Puruṣa as male and śakti as female, while describing the ultimate cosmic consciousness.

Buddha says, 'The universe creates itself. There was never a time that the universe was not there. There never will be a time when the universe will not be there.'

The universe is imperishable. The energy behind the universe is imperishable. Krishna says that He is that energy, the Puruṣottama, that drives the universe eternally.

A beautiful verse from the Upaniṣads used as the invocation verse in many rituals:

‘All is Fullness. From fullness, fullness results. When fullness is removed from fullness, what remains is still fullness.’

It refers to this aspect of what Krishna is saying. From the Infinite sprang this universe and many other universes.

Modern astrophysicists speak about many universes, not just one. They say there are millions of galaxies in each universe, millions of stars and planets in each galaxy. Even with the aid of advanced equipment, we cannot determine where the universe starts and where it ends. It will never be possible with material aids. The energy behind the universe is spiritual. It is intangible, invisible and immeasurable.

No proof exists as to how the universe was created. The biblical story of creation or the story of Brahma and pralaya, the great deluge, are metaphorical stories that essentially point towards a supreme energy responsible for the universe. However, the universe was always there.

The Big Bang theory does not explain how big bangs still continue if that was what caused the universe. For every big bang which creates new stars and galaxies in some part of the universe, there is a black hole somewhere else resulting in disappearance of stars and galaxies. For every birth, there is a death. Yet, how did the original birth happen? It never did. It was always there.

Krishna says, ‘Beyond the perishable and imperishable am I, Puruṣottama.’ He is not talking about the Yadava king Krishna, Vasudeva Krishna, son of Vasudeva and Devaki. He is talking about Parabrahma Krishna, the Īśvara. He is Saguṇa, the universal form and nirguṇa, the formless energy. He is that Brahman into whom both the soul, the individual imperishable Self and the perishable body-mind, merge.

He is the Brahman into whom the six-billion humans and countless billion living beings on planet earth as well as countless trillion upon trillion entities in all the universes merge. He is Puruṣa, the energy, and Prakṛti, the matter. Without Him, nothing moves.

We see Puruṣottama in different ways, depending upon our upbringing and capabilities. We see Him as the six-headed, twelve-handed Kartikeya or Muruga, or

the four-handed Balaji or the two-handed, peacock-feather-adorned, flute-playing Krishna. We see Him in a way that is comfortable for us to see Him, so that we can reach Him.

A great scholar and devotee prayed for years to Shiva to receive His darśan, His divine appearance. Nothing happened. One day, fearing that he may not live much longer, the devotee decided that he would no longer worship Shiva, but turn to Vishnu, who he had heard was kinder.

He placed Shiva’s statue to one side of his altar and replaced Shiva with a beautiful Vishnu statue. He did not have the heart to throw the Shiva statue away, because in his heart of hearts, he still was a devotee of Shiva. He lit incense in front of the Vishnu statue as he started his worship.

He became annoyed when the incense smoke began drifting towards the Shiva statue instead of Vishnu. He stood up and covered the nose of Shiva saying, ‘This is not for you. I don’t pray to you anymore.’

The moment he did this, he felt Shiva’s presence and had His darśan! He broke down and cried, ‘Oh Lord! For years I worshipped you according to the rules. You never appeared. Now, I cast you away. Worse yet, I insulted you by covering your nose. Still, you appeared. Why?’

Shiva said, ‘Only now you have felt Me as reality. You felt Me so strongly that you covered My nose. Till now, I was only a concept to you.’

To most of us, God is a mere concept, a theory. He is a convenient theory to hide behind, to cover our fears and anxieties and to show off our knowledge by expounding upon complex concepts and philosophies.

What difference does it make whether we call Krishna ‘Brahman, Puruṣottama, Parabrahma, Prakṛti,’ or any other name? By whatever name He is called, He is the supreme energy who causes us to move.

It is the unbounded authority of Krishna, with which He declares Himself to be Puruṣottama, that makes Gita a scriptural authority. It is not the wisdom contained in it, nor the eternal truths, but the courage of that one person, who declared Himself to be the Transcendental Being, that defines this work as an eternal scriptural truth. May that Puruṣottama, that Parabrahma Krishna, bless us all!

Now, Krishna presents the great truths about His true representation as the collective consciousness.

This may surprise you or it may be something you already know. Irrespective of whether this concept is new or old, analyze this truth, internalize as much as you can, question it until your logic fails.

The first truth:

All our minds are not individually separated pieces of the universe. They are all one and the same.

All our minds are interlinked. Not only interlinked, they directly affect each other. They straightaway affect each other. This is what I call collective consciousness. Our thoughts are as infectious as our colds. People may escape from someone else's cold. A cold may not be so infectious; however, our thoughts are more infectious than a cold!

If we catch someone's cold, we may suffer physically for a few days and then get over it. When we catch thoughts from people, not only do we suffer mentally, the suffering is long-term as well. Anything we think affects people around us. Not only are those near us touched by our thoughts, so is everyone living on planet earth.

Understand, our intellect will definitely resist this now; we will analyze this later. How can this be true? We shall analyze during the question and answer sessions, one by one, inch by inch.

I have declared the first truth: All of us are not different beings, different minds. We are all totally interlinked, closely networked. Any of my thoughts can transform you; any of your thoughts can touch me. We are not separated individuals.

Please be very clear, we are not individual islands, separated from each other and uninfluenced by each other. Only one truth called collective consciousness links all of us.

The next truth:

Not only at the mental level, even at the deeper level of consciousness, the deeper we go, the deeper we are connected. Please refer to this diagram and I will explain.

There are seven energy layers of the body. The concentric circles represent the layers.

The first layer is the physical body, the second is the pranic body and so forth.

Now, in the physical layer, you, Krishna and I can be represented as three different points in the circle, quite far from one another, say 120 degrees from one another. At the physical level, the distance is the greatest.

If we come down a little to the pranic level, the distance is reduced. If we come down deeper to the mental level, the distance between you and me is reduced even more and so is the distance between you, God and me. When we travel deeper and deeper, and finally reach the nirvanic level, these three entities merge into One. Please be very clear, at the deepest point of all these layers, God, you and I are One. There is no distance. We become a single point.

Yes, it is difficult for the intellect to believe this and it will resist. Yet this is the truth. As I have said, nobody wants to hear the truth since it will transform us! Please understand that if we reach this inner level, God and we are One. We are God. God is us.

We all seem to be different entities at the physical level. When we love someone intimately, his love and suffering affect us. It comes and goes out of our being. At the deeper level, we don't have an individual identity. We are a part of collective consciousness. We don't want suffering, yet we cannot escape from it. Again and again, whether it is physical pain or mental suffering or spiritual bondage, we go through it again and again. This is because we are unaware that we are part of collective consciousness. Once we become aware and realize that we are a part of collective consciousness, that we don’t have an individual identity, we will realize that we do not have a separate ego to protect and defend.

We think we own our intellectual identity. In Existence, there is no such thing as a separate individual identity. Once we know this truth, we will go beyond pain, suffering, depression and disease.

Understand that as long as we hold onto the concept of individual consciousness, we will be continuously suffering, physically or mentally or on the being level. Why do we continuously resist nature? Whatever nature offers, we resist.

When the weather is cold, we resist. We think we are different from Existence. I have seen sanyāsis, enlightened masters, living in the Himalayas, living almost nude in the cold, in the snow. I have also lived like that, yet the body was never disturbed, it never had a problem. I never thought that I was different from the atmosphere, never had the feeling of separation from Nature. It is only when we think that we are different from the atmosphere, from the air around us that we resist it.

A very simple thing that we can practice now is this: If we are feeling cold, we can relax, identify the area where we feel cold, witness that area. In that area, don’t resist the atmosphere, don’t resist the air, don’t resist the temperature, don’t resist nature and don’t resist Existence. Say to yourself, ‘I am not going to resist nature. I am not going to resist the temperature. I am not going to resist Existence. Let me relax.’ Be conscious and decide. With this, we shall see the body relax and the idea of cold will disappear from that part of our body; we become completely comfortable.

We may wonder whether we can extend this experiment to an extreme condition and check whether we can do this in snow and ice and resist the cold. The mind always likes to think of extremes. We can do it if we do it with totality. We don’t have that much totality, that much clarity; that is the problem. If we can fall totally in tune with nature, we can be comfortable in extreme conditions. Many human beings do that and so can all of us, if we can be in tune with Nature. When we think we are something different from Nature, we are disturbed by Nature.

Famous medical institutions have conducted experiments with Buddhist monks who live in monasteries in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, in Tibet. One such experiment documents an initiation rite where aspiring monks cover themselves in wet clothes and sit in the freezing cold outside. These monks meditate to raise their body temperature, which enables them not only to keep themselves warm, but also to dry their wet clothes. This is real. These incidents have been photographed.

One more thing, all possible bacteria and viruses are present in the air. At any moment a single virus or bacteria can cause a disease in us. But if we are totally in tune with Nature, if the viruses or bacteria go inside, they just leave us. We will not be disturbed. The moment we think that we are an individual body, separate from Existence, our whole body becomes our enemy.

You see, we are a part of the Whole. If we fall in tune with the Whole, the Whole behaves as a friend. The moment we think, discriminate or behave with the Whole in the opposite way, it acts like an enemy. Be very clear, the Whole is not here to kill or destroy us.

The Whole, the universe, is a hologram of which we are a part. Just as in a hologram, every part of the hologram, even if it splits off, reflects the totality of that hologram, we reflect the totality of the Whole that is the universe.

Another example is what happens when a person dies of drowning. The dead body floats. The dead body is heavier than water. Yet, it floats. On the other hand, a living body that is lighter than water, does not float. It drowns. Why is this so? As long as we are living, we are unable to relate with water. Our ego prevents that. Our mind prevents that. In the dead body, there is no mind and no ego. It is the mind and ego that causes our heaviness.

I recently read an interesting interview with a man who survived jumping into the Niagara Falls. Imagine someone surviving a jump into the Niagara Falls! If you have been to the Niagara Falls, you know the magnitude of the Falls. All kinds of journalists questioned him about this unusual and daring feat. This man said beautifully, 'When I jumped I became a part of the Niagara Falls. I felt I was a part of it. I never felt different from the Falls.'

When we are in tune with the collective consciousness, when we become a part of collective consciousness, Nature is with us, Nature is our friend and Nature protects us. Nature will not harm us. When we think that we are different from Nature, as long as we think that we are an individual consciousness, Nature protests against us. As long as we are in tune with the collective consciousness, Nature protects us.

Whenever we want to achieve social or economic success, we achieve our goal only when we feel in tune with the whole group. We must fall in tune with the collective consciousness. We will be resisted and we will resist as long as we feel individual, as long as we have an idea that we are somebody, an identity. Whether it is home or office or workplace or industry, this will happen.

If we disappear into the collective consciousness, we are protected and taken care of. We attain complete success, not only socially and economically, but we experience it as well. It will be a feeling of fulfillment. The feeling will be inexplicable. The moment we resist, we make a hellish experience out of it.

A small story:

Once there were two ants sitting on the rim of a cup that contained amṛta, the nectar of immortality. As they were talking, one of the ants lost his balance and was about to fall into the cup. He somehow managed to get back on the rim. The other ant asked him, 'Why don't you want to fall into the cup? Even if you drown in this, you will become only immortal.'

The first ant replied, 'But I don't want to drown!'

We don't realize that merging with the collective consciousness will liberate us in totality. We resist and hold on to ourselves. As long as we do not disappear into the collective consciousness, we continuously create hell for ourselves and for others.

This same teaching is contained in Taoism, the ancient Chinese philosophy. Tao is about flowing with Nature. Water is the greatest illustration of natural flow. It flows with the landline. It flows around obstacles, smoothly, energetically. Tao talks about reeds in water that bend with the flow and straighten up once the flow is less. This happens when we do not imagine ourselves to be different from our environment.

Even in the physical layer, if we think we are something separate from our environment, we invite diseases. One more thing, if we think we are separate individuals in the mental layer, we sow seeds of violence. Seeds of violence are created when we feel we are individuals unconnected with others, unrelated to others. We become selfish, dogmatic, and violent. We turn into terrorists. With collective consciousness, we unify; with individual consciousness, we dissect, we cut things in pieces. Logic breaks. Intuition unites.

At the soul level, if we think we are individuals, there is no possibility of spiritual growth. Spiritually, we cannot even take the first step. First thing, at the physical level, we are not isolated individuals. Our bodies and the body of the sun are connected. A small change in the body of the sun can make changes in our body. A small change in our body can change the body of the moon. Even if we are not able to logically relate to this, it is true.

In the mental layer also, we are not alone. Any thought put into someone else’s head comes and touches us, and any thought created in our mind goes and touches someone else. Any thought sowed by someone can touch and affect us. It is like ripples created on the surface of a lake. If we create a strong wave, we create an impression with our thought. We lead and inspire others with our thought. If our thoughts are not solid enough, other waves will impress us.

Either we live like a leader or we will be a follower. There is no in-between. We think, ‘I will not be a leader. I cannot do that much. I will not be a follower either. I shall maintain my own stand.’ This is impractical. There is no such thing as ‘my own stand.’ Either you lead or you follow.

At the mental level also, again and again, if we think we are individuals, we will be resisted. The moment we understand that we are a part of the collective consciousness, we will not be resisted; we will be welcomed and accepted.

The third truth:

At the ultimate level, at the spiritual level, the moment we understand that we are deeply connected, totally connected, intensely connected to the whole group, to the whole universe, not only do we experience bliss, but we really live, opening many dimensions of our being.

Right now we are stressed out and disturbed continuously and we need to think too much. With our separate body-mind, we need to think too much, we need to try too hard to enjoy life.

If we disappear into collective consciousness, we open many dimensions, many possibilities. See, now with only this one body that we have, it is a feeling of joy and we can enjoy so much. Imagine what we can do if we have two bodies? Imagine what we can do when we have many bodies!

If the multitudes of bodies increase, so does the joy, the bliss. This is our experience when we realize we are a part of the collective consciousness.

During the Nithyananda Spurana Program, the LBP 2, we realize that we are a part of collective consciousness. Not only are we a part, but we are collective consciousness. We are not an individual consciousness as we think. Layer by layer, when we go deeper and deeper, we realize that we are one with everything. So, automatically, diseases disappear. We feel well-being in our mental layer, pranic layer, etheric layer, physical layer and all other layers.

When we experience that we are boundariless consciousness, it is an unbelievable experience. It is difficult to imagine. I have seen people at the end of the program in such ecstasy that they forget their name, identity, social status, education, qualifications, wealth, religion, everything that they are and they have. They respect the other person; they respect everyone. They prostrate at each other's feet.

I have seen the father-in-law prostrating before his daughter-in-law! In India this never happens. This has happened at the end of the program because he sees the divinity in her. The mother-in-law sees the divinity in her son-in-law and touches his feet. Grandparents touch the feet of their granddaughter. The bosses or owners touch the feet of their staff or people working under them.

When we experience the feeling of oneness or collective consciousness, when we experience the bliss or experience of collective consciousness, we forget differences of name, wealth, social status and prestige; whatever we think of ourselves disappears. The truth of who we are is revealed.

I have seen that by touching the feet of their worst enemies, or people much younger or at a much lower economic level, people forget their identity. They are elevated spiritually. They experience a deep level of consciousness, such intense bliss, that their ego disappears. They see God in everyone and they are in bliss, in ecstasy, in collective consciousness.

They are not visualizing. When the experience happens, the whole group realizes that they are all One and the same. They understand that they are not different entities. Only when we experience collective consciousness can we say, can we realize and can we experience the meaning of the word bliss, eternal bliss, nityānanda.

Krishna says, ‘I am seated in the hearts of all.’ He is in the hearts of all of us, all of you, every single person in this universe. The difference between the self and the Self, the difference between the imperishable and the perishable, are for the ‘deluded’ and ‘confused’ as Krishna says. Once one has the awareness of collective consciousness, there is no difference. Everyone merges into the collective consciousness.

The wave thinks that it is separate from the ocean. It does not realize that it comes from the ocean and goes back to the ocean, that it is the ocean. Just as the wave is part of the ocean, we are part of Existence. How can we attain or reach Puruṣottama, when we are already a part of Him? We can only gain awareness that we are a part of Him.

This is the profound teaching of Krishna. In this chapter, Krishna becomes the ultimate master. Arjuna is completely in silence, the best way to imbibe the master.

The master removes the ultimate cancerous tumor that happens to our being, which we call ego.

A master does surgery on that tumor. He never allows us to be stuck or comfortable with anything less than the enlightened state. Even when we progress spiritually, we get stuck in some layer. We don't know we are stuck and not progressing. In these situations, the master pushes us again and again to move forward. He transforms our whole life.

When we see the surgeon's knife, we think he will hurt us, but the knife of a surgeon is not for killing; it is for healing. In India, gods have swords and other weapons. These are symbolic representions of them as the surgeons who remove our ego. Goddess Kali has a big knife in one hand and a severed head in the other hand. The severed head represents the ego and the sword represents knowledge or wisdom that has destroyed the ego.

Let me narrate an incident that explains how the master takes care of the disciples and never lets them be stuck at some level. Even when the disciples feel cozy and secure, the master shakes them up and makes them aware that what they think of as security is actually just getting stuck and that they should move forward.

This is an incident from the life of Sri Ramakrishna, a great spiritual master of the nineteenth century. He had a master called Totapuri. Ramakrishna meditated on a particular form of goddess Kali. He lived life happily with that form. Suddenly, the old monk Totapuri appeared and asked him to go beyond the form of Kali and not to meditate on Her form. Totapuri was a master of Advaita, non-dualism, which is based on the formless reality that the individual is one with the Divine.

Ramakrishna was surprised. He said, 'The form of Mother Kali is beautiful; I feel totally connected to Her, why shouldn't I meditate on Her form?' Totapuri said, 'Forms are ephemeral; only if you go beyond forms will you experience the eternal bliss of universal consciousness.'

When we meditate on a form, we feel comfortable, we project our ego on that form and we feel satisfied. If we wanted a caring and loving mother, or if we are missing a caring, loving father, we can project that onto our God and think of our

God as a caring, loving father or mother. The more strongly we visualize, the more the visualization comes to reality.

Ramakrishna felt that what he so strongly visualized was reality. He was happy, yet it was not the ultimate Truth. Totapuri did not allow him to stay there with ephemeral happiness. He inspired Ramakrishna to go beyond form into the formless, which is eternal bliss. In fact, he forced Ramakrishna to visualize destroying the form in order to have the formless experience. Sri Ramakrishna did and reached eternal bliss.

The master makes sure that we are not stuck anywhere and that we reach the ultimate. That’s why in the East so much importance is given to the master. The West only knows teachers. In the West, the idea of a spiritual master doesn’t exist. In the East, in gurukuls, traditional schools that impart spiritual education, even the regular, non-spiritual education was given by spiritual masters, not teachers.

What is the difference between a master and a teacher? A teacher knows intellectually; a master knows experientially. A master has experienced what he is speaking, the truth. If Indian kings wanted to learn archery, they went to a master. You may wonder what enlightened persons know about agriculture, archery or business.

Every art and science has a technique. In the gurukul, at the age of seven, all children were initiated into meditation, which they practiced till the age of fourteen. If they had had their first spiritual experience by then, they studied Brahma Sutra, which imparted advanced spiritual truths, and took up a renunciate life, sanyās. Otherwise they studied the intricacies of life through the Kama Sutra and entered into married life.

Everyone was happy because they were properly guided by enlightened masters to live the life best suited to them. A teacher teaches through verbal language; a master teaches through his body language. It is known now that ninety percent of our communication is through nonverbal communication, through the body language. The direct touch and presence of a master transforms and awakens a person by creating such a space.

Once we see the master, he says we are not what we imagine ourselves to be. He tells us that we are not human beings seeking a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Not only are we not ready to believe this; we are also acutely uncomfortable with it. We feel he is preaching his ideas, trying to convert us. We become frightened and want to run away.

We want to be happy with our sheep life and be stuck with our regular things like wife, children, work and pleasure. After some time, when the master continues to give us the same idea, we stop resisting, but we are not yet convinced. After some more time, the energy of the master attracts us and we start remembering him. He becomes a part of our being. Still, we are not ready to accept what he says. We play a game of hide and seek.

At some point, when we trust him, he shows us that we are the same as him. He shows us that we can realize the truth and eventually be like him. Again we get frightened and act like a sheep. Then the master also acts like a sheep to make us comfortable, and make us feel that he is one among us. Once we relate to him and trust him, he forces us to experience that we are lions. This is what I call initiation, or the first experience. He forces us to experience that we are lions, but even after that experience, we again deny it.

After a long time, the master makes us experience our true nature and gives us the ultimate freedom. Then, only then, do we realize that we were always lions.

We don't have to become something new; we need to wake up and realize what we already are. The master never allows us to stop at any step before the full flowering. Again and again, he inspires and takes us to higher levels of conscious experience, until we realize we are that eternal consciousness, until we realize our true potentiality, the ultimate Truth.

A Zen story:

A disciple grew up with the master from a young age. He used to imitate the master. While speaking, the master always made a certain gesture by making a fist with the thumb pointing up. The disciple did the same when the master gave discourses.

One day the master took a sword and suddenly cut the disciple's fingers! The disciple had so much trust in the master that without a doubt, he felt that whatever the master did must be good for him. That trust transported him to a higher-level consciousness and he suddenly experienced enlightenment.

The other disciples asked the master why the disciple had to lose a few fingers to become enlightened.

The master replied, 'People lose many lives to get enlightened, so losing a few fingers to become enlightened is okay!'

Another Zen story:

A disciple asked his master for guidance to become enlightened. They were walking together on the third floor of a building, with the disciple following the master.

Suddenly, the master turned and pushed the disciple off the building. Again the disciple was so deeply connected to the master that he felt there must be something good in whatever the master did. He felt like he was floating. When he touched the ground, he touched heaven; he became enlightened!

Of course, masters use these techniques only with those who feel completely connected with them. They operate on disciples who have fallen in tune with them. This is the ultimate technique, the Zen stick that is used in the most loving, caring way. To the outsider, it may look harsh; however, the disciple understands the love and care behind it when the master uses it on him and is eternally grateful for such surgery.

The master never allows anyone to get stuck with ordinary experiences. Even though we call it a spiritual experience, it is only when we stop experiencing anything that we enter into a real spiritual experience. Only in such an experience, the experiencer, the experienced and the experience, disappear into one; all three merge into the experience. Only 'we' remain, even the word 'we' can't be used since there is no other, all boundaries are lost!

Unless that experience of tat tvam asi, 'That are thou,' happens, the master never rests. The master is the ultimate master surgeon who removes the ego at all levels, the ordinary or the spiritual. People have spiritual ego when they have a 'holier than thou' attitude. The master will never allow us to be stuck in that area. He pushes us forward until we experience the ultimate.

The more we allow his surgery, the more we realize the truth. A few people run away from the operating table during surgery; that's dangerous. Before surrendering, do all the checking, verifying, window-shopping. But once you surrender, allow him to work on you.

Let us pray to Krishna, the ultimate energy, the universal consciousness, the cosmic intelligence, to give us the experience of eternal consciousness; to make us beings with jñāna cakṣu, eyes of knowledge, and establish us in nitya ānanda, eternal bliss. Thank you!

Q: Swamiji, if we are interconnected at the level of the mind and higher levels, why don't we feel this connection? How do we get connected?

Let me answer the second part first. You do not need to get connected because you are already connected. All that you need to do is become aware that you are connected.

At the deepest level of your existence, at the nirvanic layer, you are one with the world and the Divine. This is referred to as the oneness of jīva, jagat and Īśvara (individual, world and God). You no longer feel that you are different from all that is around you. There is compassion for fellow beings, even non-living objects. This is the feeling that many who undergo Near-Death Experience have when they return.

You feel that the energy within you is the energy of Nature, of the universe and of the Divine. You are forever in bliss. You are not connected to one thing or another, but to all. Therefore, there is no attachment to specific objects, ideas and relationships. How can you focus your love and attention on one thing when you are already in expansion, covering all things and all people?

This is the pūrṇa that Shankara talks about, the infinite state of fullness that covers all. This is also the śūnya that Buddha talks about when the individual identity disappears, and the self merges with the Self.

How do we reach this? This is an easy question to answer as well as an impossible question to answer.

Each one of us, saint or sinner, is at the same distance from this awareness and the jump is quantum. It is an instantaneous and spontaneous awareness that happens. It is not a phased program in which you get certificates at each level and finally you pass the awareness examination.

All our Life Bliss courses open up a part of you and give you a glimpse into this truth. At the first-level program called Ananda Spurana program or Life Bliss Program Level 1, your energy centers are awakened and cleansed. You are ready for the glimpse, keen to move forward. At the second-level program, called Nithyananda Spurana Program or Life Bliss Program Level 2, where we take you through the seven energy layers, you get the experience. You get glimpses. At the level of Nithya Spiritual Healers' Initiation, you are initiated into a process that allows you to stay in this experience as long as you wish.

Beyond this your effort is needed. When your questions become a quest and your urge become urgent, you become aware. When you feel that there is no choice but to renounce everything else and surrender to that experience, you become connected to the ultimate Truth.

This is not a logical process; it is not a defined path. The path becomes the destination when you have the desire.

Thus ends the fifteenth chapter named Puruṣottama Yogaḥ of the Upaniṣad of Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of yoga dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna.

CHAPTER 16

Human beings are born with divine nature inbuilt in them; they are not sinners! Yet, worldly conditioning turns them demonic. How do we become divine again? Krishna explains!

◆ Swamiji, would it be correct to say that even a demon such as Ravana in the epic Ramayana cared for his own kind and family and in that sense, had a measure of ‘You’ in him? Does that make him less of a demon?

◆ Great masters have created different religions. Yet, as you said, these religions move from love and compassion to control through fear and greed. Many of us do not know any route other than religion by which to seek God. What do we do?

◆ Swamiji, from what I hear, our default state is the divine, and we slip into demonic nature. Does caring for others keep us in this divine state?

◆ Swamiji, What is the meaning of the mantra OM?

◆ Swamiji, the cow is considered sacred and divine in Hindu religion. If it is based on ahiṁsā (non-violence), then no animal should be killed. Why the cow alone? Why not other animals?

◆ Based on our education, many of us believed that science had all the answers. Even when science did not have answers to what the scriptures said, rather than denying science and accepting its limitations, we denied what the scriptures said. Thanks to you, many of us understand the truth behind the scriptures.

◆ Swamiji, in order to achieve bliss, instead of being caught in temporary pleasures that only result in suffering, is it enough to drop anger, lust and greed?